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his interests. >> jonathan: after matt gaetz withdraws his nomination for attorney general, the president quickly moves to name another loyalist, former florida attorney general, pam bondi. >> president trump has been out there fighting for us, and if he's out there fighting for us, we're going to fight for him. >> jonathan: and a burst of friday night announcements, including billionaire hedge fund manager, scott bessent for treasury secretary. >> this is the trump economy. this is the trump stock market. >> jonathan: more scrutiny of pentagon nominee, pete hegseth accused of a 2017 sexual assault. >> the matter was fully investigated and i was completely cleared, and that's where i'm going to leave. >> it i'm not going to prejudge him, but it's a concerning accusation. >> jonathan: and tulsi gabbard for director of national intelligence. >> she's become an apologist for vladimir putin and frankly i don't think she could hold a security clearance.

>> jonathan: will trump get the cabinet he wants? we'll ask our guests this morning, republican senator bill hagerty of tennessee, minnesota democratic senator, amy klobuchar, plus the round table, donna brazile, reince priebus, chris christie, and congresswoman jasmine crockett. ♪ >> jonathan: good morning, and welcome to "this week." as we come on the air this morning, donald trump has chosen nearly all of his cabinet no, nominees and senior white house staff, making his picks at a record pace and bypassing the typical vetting process. no fbi background checks yet for any of them. when matt gaetz dropped out as the nominee for attorney general, it took trump just a matter of hours to name a replacement. he seems like a president-elect in a hurry, ready to make an impact as soon as he is sworn in. if his choices are confirmed, trump may have one of the most ideologically diverse cabinets in decades, with former democrats including bobby kennedy and tulsi gabbard, filling some of his most important roles. trump has announced jobs for a half dozen billionaires

including the world's wealthiest man, elon musk, who will head up what he's calling the department of government efficiency. it may not be a team of rivals, but you might call it a team of billionaires. it's also a team of loyalists. the choices are almost all of them, people who have demonstrated personal loyalty to trump, and at least five of the picks he has announced so far work on air for fox news. in a moment, we'll speak with a republican senator who has spent a lot of time with trump at mar-a-lago since election day, and i'll talk to a leading democrat in the senate about the coming battle over confirming trump's nominees, but first, i spent several days around trump's mar-a-lago estate this week checking in on a transition unlike any we have ever seen. this week, donald trump dispatched his vice president-elect to escort some of his most controversial nominees around the senate.

he learned there are limits to what senate republicans will go along with. early in the week, a top trump lieutenant told me senate republicans would have no choice but to get in line or see their political careers go down. there's votes coming, and if you are on the wrong side of the vote, you're buying yourself a primary. a trump adviser told me, and there's a guy named elon musk, who is going to finance it. the president gets to decide his cabinet. no one else. that's just the way it is. as it turns out, that's not how it is. after just eight days as trump's nominee for attorney general, matt gaetz dropped out because more than four republican senators privately made it clear they just wouldn't vote for him, making his confirmation effectively impossible. and now there's intense scrutiny on trump's pick for defense secretary, pete hegseth who was selected with almost no voting. he previously faced allegations that he denies of sexual assault. some senators say he at the very least, should go through an fbi background check before any confirmation hearing.

to replace gaetz, trump moved in lightning speed, naming pam bondi as his choice for attorney general within hours of gaetz dropping out. bondi had not previously been under consideration. she hadn't even been interviewed for the job until the day trump announced her for the nominee. bondi has experience, eight years as florida's attorney general. she's also a vocal trump supporter. she's campaigned for him, advised him, and served on his defense team during the first impeachment trial. >> they threw due process, fundamental fairness, and our constitution out the window in the house proceedings. that's why we're here. >> jonathan: if they are all confirmed, the top three officials at the justice department, will all be people who worked for trump as lawyers for his defense. a fourth nominee, john sauer for solicitor general, is the one who argued the immunity case before the supreme court. the trump transition team has offices right here in west palm beach.

those offices are staffed, but the real action is right over there at mar-a-lago as job seekers know that the key to getting a job in the trump white house or even in his cabinet, might just be getting a little bit of face time with donald trump at his club here in palm beach. late friday, trump filled the biggest remaining cabinet job naming scott bessent. he spend years working for george soros, but he's also been a prolific loyalist for trump, and a regular on steve bannon's war room podcast. he also spoke at a trump rally over the summer. >> this is the trump economy. this is the trump stock market. >> jonathan: if confirmed, he would be the first openly gay treasury secretary. he also appointed the director of office management and. budget. he was an architect of the project 2025 plan that the trump campaign sought to distance

itself from. >> the president has to move executively as fast and as aggressively as possible with a radical constitutional perspective to be able to dismantle that bureaucracy and their power centers. >> jonathan: it's not a racially diverse group. of the dozens of nominees trump has announced so far, only one is black. nfl veteran and conservative commentator, scott turner, is trump's choice to lead the department of housing and urban development. in perhaps the most controversial announcement friday, trump named right-wing commentator, sebastian gorka as the white house senior director for counterterrorism and national security. gorka was a big advocate of trump's ill-fated muslim ban. more recently he has had this to say about how trump should approach his first 30 days in office. >> part of my department, you identify the two worst criminals. you arrest them, and you perp walk them out of the building in shackles like they did in peter navarro in front of the cnn cameras, and they stand trial.

>> jonathan: and joining us now is republican senator bill hagerty of tennessee, a close ally of president-elect trump. senator hagerty, thank you for being with us. i know you have spent a lot of time with the president-elect at mar-a-lago and also in texas since he won the election. give us a sense. what do you expect? what does he expect for his first days in office? how's he going to get started? >> well, one, i would say this, jon. he's got tremendous energy. he's feeling great. the mandate that came from the american public is overwhelming, and he's absorbed that, i think, in a very positive way. he knows that the american public has voted to see change, radical change in washington, and i think that's what he's ready to deliver. it's our job in the legislative job to work alongside him arm in arm, and i look forward to doing that. >> jonathan: i've taken note with how quickly he's made his

cabinet nominees, white house staff announcements, much quicker than he did eight years ago, be you even in a republican-controlled senate, confirmation can be a bit sticky. how much of his cabinet does he expect to be in place for the first days of his presidency? >> he clearly expects to hit the ground running. he wants us to have these hearings done quickly, and expeditiously. i've said i'm more than happy to work through the weekends as long as it takes to get people ready and prepared to go so on the 21st of january, the american public can see his team get seated and the action they hope to see, the change they hope to see be put in place in terms of strengthening our economy, strengthening our military, basically making america the country that we all hope and believe it can be. >> jonathan: so obviously there's some controversy surrounding several of his picks. perhaps most so at this point, pete hegseth, to be the defense secretary. i think he's actually currently a constituent of yours, but he's faced -- he's faced these allegations of sexual assault dating back to 2017, you know, my understanding is that donald trump didn't even know about those allegations until after he named him. is that your understanding?

>> jon, as you said, all these are as you said, is allegations. pete is talented individual. i talked to him earlier this week. he told me, jon, i was thinking about getting out. you know we have a huge recruitment problem, a retention problem. i was thinking about getting out, but as you've come to lead us, that's the type of inspirational leader we need to see. don't let these allegations distract us. what we need is real, significant change. the pentagon has been more focused on pronouns than we have with fallacy, and i think pete is the person to do this. >> jonathan: clearly, i've heard from your republican colleagues, you have to examine the allegations and you have to look at what's there. are you confident there's nothing else to come about pete hegseth? this was a pick that came together very quickly, with very little vetting. >> actually, the transition team has been working for months to prepare for this. i'm certain that there was

significant vetting that has taken place. it has for every candidate. so i'm not expecting anything to sort of see drop as you say, or that type of thing. what i expect is to see a thorough hearing take place, to see the senate do its work, and i expect to see pete hegseth confirmed as our secretary of defense. >> jonathan: your colleague, senator joni ernst has said she would like to see and a combat veteran herself, she would like to see an fbi background check that would be helpful of pete hegseth. there haven't been fbi background checks for any of these nominees. do you agree with her though that this should happen before we get to confirmation votes? >> i don't think the american public cares who does the background checks. what the american public cares about is to see the mandate they voted in delivered month. we need to get to work again, making our military stronger is absolutely critical, and i think

we're looking at a chance to do this. if you look at the cabinet that's in place right now, the worst that we've ever seen. alejandro mayorkas has to go down as the worst cabinet secretary in history. you think about the failures on his watch, the failures of fema, the southern border, the murder of laken riley, the secret service failures. we have to get confident people into office. lloyd austin overseeing afghanistan, what a debacle. no one has been held to account by the biden administration, and the american public are ready to replace them. >> jonathan: are you saying you don't care about fbi background checks? we should do away with them and you can go ahead -- it's been standard practice as you know, for a long time, but you're saying do away with it? >> certainly, jon. i have been through it myself. i have been through confirmation as well. they have to do these checks expeditiously. they need to get onto this, and we'll get this done. >> jonathan: i understand you've

also had some concerns about hegseth's view on women in combat. they said pretty flatly although there are exceptions he's outlined, but he doesn't like women in combat. you disagree with him as i understand it. has he given you assurances he won't try to change pentagon policy on that? >> the policy is set by the president of the united states, not by the cabinet members. i may disagree with him. look. i disagreed with rahm emanuel, but i supported him to be ambassador of japan at that time. i think pete hegseth will follow the lead of the commander in chief, is what i fully expect. >> jonathan: let me ask you about the big announcement that came friday. once again, donald trump moving very quickly. gaetz drops out and then boom, you have pam bondi announced as -- actually thursday, as the choice for attorney general. you know, she's obviously qualified. she's been, you know, attorney general for florida for eight years. she's also a lobbyist, and she's lobbied for the qatari government.

you called the qatari government, a, quote, hamas benefactor. are you concerned that you have as the attorney general, somebody that lobbied on behalf of somebody that you consider a hamas benefactor? >> well, i'm not familiar with pam's background and her career beyond being attorney general of florida which i understand she was a great attorney general. i know pam. i think she's be outstanding in the job. i'll say this about the qataris. they now kicked hamas now. this is the trump effect taking place before he even takes office. i'm pleased to see that occur, and i hope we see more of it. >> jonathan: let me ask you about another one here. we've got tulsi gabbard to head up the intelligence agency's dni.

she is somebody who has been harshly critical, not that long ago, of donald trump. in fact, while trump was in office. let me just go over some of the things that she has said. the action that this trump administration has taken in reneging and breaking our role in the iran nuclear agreement when iran is complying. she also said that president trump's decision to take out soleimani is, quote, a constitutional legal act of war, and it further hi lighted trump's lack of basic understanding in foreign policy. she's also blamed the united states and nato for russia's decision -- illegal action to invade ukraine. what's your feeling on tulsi gabbard to head dni? >> i certainly don't have to agree with her on every point, either, jon. >> jonathan: these are pretty

big points though. 6. >> well, you know, for example, on the iran nuclear deal. we found out later, israel proved it. they were not complying. you can have bad information. i think what happens though is there are consequences in president trump's cabinet. there have been zero consequences in president biden's cabinet. massive failures on his watch. massive failures by his cabinet. you look at what tony blinken and lloyd austin have done on an international scale. they have not been held to account. the debacle in afghanistan, the greatest embarrassment. no one held to account. president trump will fire people that don't do their job well. i fully expect everybody coming into the cabinet will listen to president trump. they'll let him set the policy and they'll execute according to that plan. >> jonathan: and finally, the issue of recess appointments. trump had suggested, and wanted john thune to agree to it, the idea if he can't get confirmation on any of these, that he could bypass the senate and do what's called recess appointments. is that still on the table? do you think that's still something that trump is considering?

>> it is, and should be on the table, jon. president reagan's used it. george w. bush used it. this is a constitutionally available tool. what we want to see is democrats cooperate with us, but if the resistance movement gets as heavy as it was, you know, i have been through the process myself of confirmation, i turned my paperwork in january, and i didn't get through the process until july. we need to see things move more quickly. the american public has spoken, and president trump is ready for action. we need to put a team in place around him, and he needs every tool at his disposal to do that. >> jonathan: recess appointments have certainly been used. barack obama named members famously to the national labor relations board, but never for positions as important as cabinet secretaries, you know, of the largest cabinet agencies, and let me just ask you, just finally, you mentioned if democrats are obstructing, would he do that or try to do that if he didn't have the republican votes to try to get somebody confirmed? that's the issue. if he doesn't have the republican votes, would he try to bypass the senate and appoint a major cabinet secretary in a

recess? >> again, jon, i haven't spoken with president trump about the specific plans. what he wants to see is these appointments made quickly. he wants to get through the confirmation process. everything should be on the table. >> jonathan: bill hagerty, thank you for joining us. >> good to be with you today. >> jonathan: coming up, will democrats will get behind any of trump's cabinet picks? amy klobuchar backed half of his first cabinet picks last time. we'll talk to her in just two minutes. . we'll talk to her in just two minutes. wounded warrior project empowers post-9/11 veterans and their families with life-changing programs and services. i faced my ptsd, and i'm a better husband and father because of it. we help warriors

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the bad ones. the investigators will be investigated because the deep state -- last term for president trump, they were hiding in the shadows, but now they have a spotlight on them, and they can all be investigated and the house needs to be cleaned out. >> jonathan: that was donald trump's new nominee for attorney general, pam bondi, just 15 months ago, promising retribution at the justice department. here to discuss that and more is democratic senator, amy klobuchar coming to us from the halifax security forum in nova scotia. thank you, senator, for joining us. look. >> thank you very much, jonathan, and it's good to be in canada. i have not moved here. i want to make that clear, and we are -- we're really having a good discussion here. democrats and republicans, with foreign policy leaders about our strong support for ukraine. >> jonathan: so let me ask you about the discussions to come on the confirmations.

let's start with pam bondi. you know he serious concerns about trump's first choice, matt gaetz. i think you called him an absurd choice among other things. what about pam bondi? what do you make of her? >> right. well, to make clear, to have matt gaetz who was under investigation for sex trafficking run a department of 115,000 law enforcement people, yeah. i thought it was absurd. pam bondi will have a hearing, and we'll be able to make her views clear. i think the things that i look at is, is someone competent, and are they going to uphold the law? it is so important. it's the lead law enforcement officer for our country, and does it concern me that revenge would be part of her mission? of course, it does. i hope that's not the case. i hope that what she wants to do is uphold the constitution because that is a really important job, especially the attorney general job in our country's law enforcement and in our country's justice system. >> jonathan: you're on the committee so you'll be part of those confirmation hearings. do you expect to meet with her

beforehand one-on-one? >> of course, i do, and that has always been the case during democratic or republican presidents. our job is to look at the fbi background check, and is to ask them questions to make sure they're fulfilling the mission of the department. in this case, i am concerned with all these nominees, and i'm not singling her out. if we do not have an agreement for fbi background checks as far as i know, the transition committee has not made that agreement yet. this has been something that's going on back to eisenhower's case, and when you look at some of the nominees and some of the issues with them, not all of them. not all of them, but when you look at it, you have to be able to find out what went on. we require these background checks of dea agents, drug

enforcement agents. we require them of first-time prosecutors for the federal government. why wouldn't we get these background checks for the most important job in the united states government? >> jonathan: even junior officials at the white house historically have had fbi background checks. i want to get to more of that in a second. >> i was noticing that when senator hagerty talked about getting his papers in, that's part of getting your papers in. so if they keep delaying on these background checks, we won't have a delay in getting these cabinet officials in. i don't want to have a delay. i want to have the hearings. i want to make a decision on each one of them on the merits as i've done in the past, and i can't do that without the background checks. >> jonathan: so to be clear, you don't think there should be hearings until the background checks are completed? >> sometimes it is an ongoing process and you can do it at the same time, but we just need the background checks. we need the hearings, and remember, part of what senator hagerty was talking about, and others have talked about, is not

even having a hearing at all, and i want to make this really clear. this recess appointment as you pointed out, jonathan, has been sometimes used on lower level officials very, very rarely. four cabinet officials, as far as i know, it has never been used and the u.s. supreme court in a 9-0 decision said that congress sets its own recesses and makes its own decisions. you have senator thune, the incoming leader on the republican side, making very clear that they don't have a vote to ram through people during these recess appointments because in the end, it is the republicans that are going to have to make a decision if these people are qualified for these jobs. they have the votes. they have over 51 votes right now in the senate. so while it is our job under the constitution to raise questions, to ask them where they stand on issues, to look at if what they're going to do, whether it's running the justice department, or running the health department, if it's truly going to help the american in the end, it's going to be the

republicans in the u.s. senate, their decision about whether they want to put these people in place. >> jonathan: you know john thune well, and you're one of these -- a democrat who has had good relations and worked with republicans. do you think they would go along with this? i know thune has said everything is on the table, but do you really think republican senators would allow -- would fold and allow major cabinet secretaries to be confirmed without even the senate voting? >> i don't, and i think a number of them both publicly and privately have said that they will not go along with that. so i don't think that's going to happen. i also think you have senators such as lisa murkowski, susan collins, and a conservative senator from north dakota, senator kramer, making very clear that they believe they need the background checks to make decisions. so i mean, you add all that together, democrats aren't delaying anything here.

we're not -- it's on them. they've got to get their background checks together. they've got to get qualified nominees and we're interested in doing the work of the american people. we want to continue the work of president biden to bring down drug costs and that includes on the insulin cap, negotiating the medicare prices. that's a big, big job that's coming up because we have a number of drugs that are going to be under negotiation next year. we want to continue the work of bringing in more affordable housing and doing something more on child care. these are basic bread and butter issues, but if things get delayed because they're not getting their background checks or they don't have the votes for certain nominees, that just mucks up things, and so i hope that they will put in qualified nominees, and we will get these background checks and we will move forward, and we will not have brouhahas over people like matt gaetz that shouldn't have been nominated in the first place.

>> jonathan: and as we pointed out earlier, you confirmed it is exactly half of trump's first initial cabinet picks eight years ago. when it comes to pam bondi, where you will be taking a lead role on the confirmation hearings. you did not vote for either jeff sessions or bill barr. those were trump's two confirmed attorneys general. trump didn't like them either ultimately for different reasons, but do you see a scenario where you would vote to confirm pam bondi? >> i don't know yet, and i never weigh in unless it's something as absurd as matt gaetz was, in which my republican colleagues were telling me incredibly troubling things about his background. in this case, as with every nominee, i believe you need to hear them out. you need to meet with them as i will do with this nominee, and then you make a decision. so i think you'll see a lot of democrats and republicans in that posture. that being said, when you look at some of the views of some of these nominees, you asked senator hagerty about pete hegseth for the nominee of the defense department, the fact he

said even just recently, this wasn't, you know, ten years ago that he didn't want women in combat, when 18% of our military is made up of women. when that is how we made our recruiting goals last year, was the fact that women are signing up for the military, and we have thousands in combat right now, that really concerns me for the good of our military that someone would have that position. so that's an example. or when we have someone nominated for the health department that says that they question time-worn vaccines, vaccines that save kids' lives. i'm not even talking here about the covid vaccine which clearly saved lives, but i'm talking about other vaccines as well. so those are the kinds of things that i think are important. it is qualifications that gets the background check, and then it's, is our views consistent with the american people's in terms of where we need to move forward as a country, and will they be able to manage major, major departments of tens of thousands of people? >> jonathan: all right, senator

amy klobuchar from canada. thank you very much. from minnesota, but coming to us from canada. thank you very much -- thank you very much. >> via canada. thank you. thanks, jonathan. >> jonathan: up next, the writing was on the wall for matt gaetz. is another trump pick in danger of losing support from senate republicans? the round table is next. they will grow up. (♪) discover who they are (♪) what they want from this world. and how they will make it better. and while parenting has changed, how much you care has not. that's why instagram is introducing teen accounts.

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i know enough people that were a hell no in the conference that the path would have been very, very difficult, if possible even. i doubt it was. >> jonathan: republican senators expressing some relief about matt gaetz dropping out. what did trump's other picks signal about his agenda on day one? some of them might surprise you. the round table is all here. we're going to be right back. your passions. rsg no one wants to be known for cancer but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer. fda-approved for 17 types of cancer, including certain early-stage and advanced cancers. one of those cancers is early-stage non—small cell lung cancer. keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies before surgery when you have early-stage lung cancer, which can be removed by surgery, and then continued alone after surgery to help prevent your lung cancer from coming back. keytruda can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment. this may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have cough, shortness of breath,

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many remedies you take for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. you're gonna love this property. try this. mucinex 12 hour treats the mucus that causes chest congestion for all-day relief. ahhh! mucinex in, mucus out! treat the cause. no matter what kind of teeth you gotta brush, oral-b electric cleans better with one simple touch. oral-b's dentist inspired round brush head hugs em, cleans em, and gets in between em, for 100% cleaner teeth. your perfect clean starts with oral-b. >> jonathan: welcome back. let's bring in the round table. we have donna brazile, former new jersey governor, chris christie, democratic congresswoman, jasmine crockett of texas, and reince priebus. thank you all for being here. okay. you were for a time, the head of the transition for donald trump eight years. >> yep. >> jonathan: and even after you moved on from that job, you were still very involved. how does it compare to what's going on now?

>> it's really different because, you know, think about what happened in '16. there were people coming in, being interviewed. there were people being, you know, vetted in realtime by an entire crew of former bush 43 u.s. attorneys, and you had a senior group of people who were helping to direct the president-elect on the choices to make, and i think that was predominantly because, you know, donald trump was scared of the presidency when he got there in '16. he didn't expect to win. he didn't have a victory speech written on election night. he was not ready to go, and so when it happened, he wanted as many of those people around him as he possibly could. this time, there is no fear. >> jonathan: were you doing fbi background checks before the election? >> not before the election, no. what we were doing was, out of all the publicly available materials, we had former -- about 12 former bush 43 u.s. attorneys who were going through all the publicly available information, and writing up, you know, mini type of vettings

before anything. fbi didn't start until after you were actually put forward by the administration. >> jonathan: and reince, you were actually there, right there with the president-elect in 2016. he ended up choosing a cabinet that looks, i think, a lot different than this one, but particularly a lot of people that he didn't really know. >> well, you know, we started the transition, you know, as chris said, it was a lot simpler time. i mean, we didn't have a huge campaign -- >> jonathan: it didn't seem simple at the time, by the way. >> think about it though. it was actually pretty simple. we didn't have a huge trump campaign, number one. we didn't have cochairs of a transition where we had, you know, in this case, you have a howard lutnick and the chief of staff and you've got the kids. i think it's a lot more complicated now, but as chris said, i also think the president knows -- it's not unfamiliar to

him, and he wants to make sure that the people that he wants, that he now understands all these jobs, he knows what he wants to put in there, that he's getting it, and by the way, he's got a mandate to do it, and i think that that feeling, that feeling of confidence, of what happened on election day and the power that that delivers to donald trump is there, and it's palpable in mar-a-lago, and you can feel it in the air. >> jonathan: donna, these look a lot like in your face picks. some of them, not all of them. >> i was expecting hulk hogan, laura loomer. >> jonathan: for which department? >> the department of defense and laura loomer for secretary of education. i'm not surprised by his selection, and that's what he believes, and that's what he thinks, but what i am shocked is this notion that these positions do not require an appropriate security background check. look. i have been appointed by two

presidents for the same position, and i went through a thorough background check, thorough. >> but they will go through a background check. >> by the fbi? >> because it's been don't be in record time. >> when? >> it's going to happen right now. they're going to have two months to do it. >> he has not signed -- he has not signed the agreements yet that need to be done. >> he will. >> i know you're saying that, reince, but he's got to do it. he's got to sign the agreements that trigger these things. >> that takes time. >> it's been two weeks. >> part of the problem is he doesn't -- well, he has had enough time to name all these people, but not enough time to sign a piece of paper or have linda mcmahon or howard sign the payer? he doesn't trust the fbi so he doesn't want the fbi doing these background checks. >> jonathan: he wants to vet the fbi and not have the fbi vetting them. >> if i had robert f. kennedy jr. and pete hegseth with some of these background issues they have, i wouldn't want the fbi

looking at them. >> i -- i understand exactly where you're coming from. i agree. he doesn't want background checks, and he's not decided to put people in that are qualified. i mean, and not to mention, this has to be a historic number of people that have been accused of sexual assault or some type of sexual misconduct in some way, but what is really frustrating that the american people need to pay attention to is the fact that if you are going to work in one of these agencies, you will have to be most likely vetted to a higher level than the person that's running that agency. that's a problem, but for whatever reason, with this team, it doesn't seem like it's a problem. he's absolutely deciding that he wants loyalists. this is something that project 2025 talked about. it was about putting the most loyal people into position. it wasn't about making sure that you had the most qualified people in position. >> you guys still don't get it.

the president put all this on the table. these people -- most of them have been speaking at rallies for three to four years every day. >> jonathan: that's not exactly an fbi background check. >> a week from now -- in a week from now, all these documents are going to be signed. the senate's going to have all this information. it's all going to come out, and they're going to take their time, and they're going to vote, or they're going to do a recess appointment. one way or the other, these people are going to be vetted. what do you think he's doing in mar-a-lago right now? he's down in mar-a-lago -- >> jonathan: explaining why he can't do recess appointment. >> the constitution is pretty clear. the president does have the power to do this. the question is whether or not the republican leader and whether the senate is going to do it, but it's very clear that the president has the power. >> jonathan: the constitution is not clear on the extent of that at all. there was a supreme court case where three -- actually, four at the time, scalia was one of them, but supreme court justices who were all conservatives said that the president's ability to

make recess appointments is highly limited. highly limited. >> it's limited, but with cooperation from the senate, the president has the power, but here's the thing. forget that for a minute. he's going to get most of these -- 90% of these nominees anyway. these are not going to be nominees, i don't believe, that are going to be rejected by the republican senate. >> that's why he should go through the process. there's a number of these nominees that are actually quite good. doug burgum, i've known him for a long time. he will do a solid job as -- >> senator of -- >> north dakota. he'll do a really solid job there. i think brooke rollins will do a good job of agriculture. >> jonathan: bessent? >> i don't know him, but he's a mainstream type of choice. he's a wall street guy who's being put in by a republican president. so part of this, jon, too, is there's an over -- there's too much hysteria about all of them,

and i think that's going to be a mistake for the country, you know? focus on -- matt gaetz was an abominable pick, and it was donald trump overreading his mandate, and he got smacked back. >> jonathan: how hard from the democrats going to fight on these picks? what can they do? >> article 2, section 2, clause 2, i didn't go to law school, but i read. it gives the senate the power of advising consent. there's no question with 53 republican senators that the republicans will have to maintain the support of all of them in order to get these nominees through the process, but there's no question. like lisa murkowski, the senator from alaska, the republican senator, she said, i want to see some background information. democrats will want to see the receipts. it's their right. i think the democrats must pick and choose their battles. it's going to be so much on day one for us to be appalled by, but i think when it comes to

these cabinet positions and others, the democrats should hold the line. they should make sure that these nominees are vetted properly, and then we can question whether or not they should succeed. >> jonathan: so congresswoman crockett, who do you think the democrats in the senate, your colleagues in the senate, should really fight on? >> i definitely think tulsi. absolutely. >> jonathan: you overlap with her, but former democratic member of the house. >> no. she is a clear danger. i think when we are talking about whether or not we are going to be more vulnerable or less when it comes to, like, our international security, i definitely think we've got to have really, really qualified people. i think some of these other positions, you know what? the agency can kind of run on its own, and even if it's somebody that's learning on the job, that's okay, but when

you're talking about our national security, something that we should all be concerned about, especially when he know that iran supposedly had a hit out on president trump, i think that this is something that we need to make sure that we focus on. >> do you have some inside information an her that you want to share? >> no. >> jonathan: wait a minute. we're going to take a quick break. that's a great segue because we're going to come back. we're going to talk about why some republicans and at least one top republican is calling trump's pick to head the intelligence agencies a russian, iranian, syrian, and chinese sympathizer. we'll be right back. (vo) weight loss is changing. for so long, i felt stuck on repeat. i tried, and tried again. lost weight, gained it back. but zepbound means change. zepbound is for adults with obesity, to help lose weight and keep it off. activating 2 naturally occurring hormone receptors in my body, zepbound works differently.

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tulsi gabbard, trump's nominee for director of national intelligence. we are back with the round table. so donna, you heard what the congresswoman said before the break. how hard are democrats going to fight tulsi gabbard? >> i don't know. she deserved to have a hearing. she deserved to be vetted. she deserved to have the most strenuous background check. if the tsa rumors are true that they looked at a suspicious pattern of travel, that will come up in the vetting process. look. i served inside the dnc with tulsi gabbard. i know her. >> jonathan: she was what? she was a cochair? >> she was a vice chair. we were both vice chairs. i respect tulsi gabbard. i disagree with her choices. i disagree with everything in terms of where she's at now, but she deserves to have a very thorough background check. >> jonathan: she could get a democratic vote or two, no? bernie sanders? >> she represented hawaii.

i don't know if she'll get the support of democrats, but she should have a thorough background check like everybody educational. >> jonathan: what about the way she's hammered trump? not that long ago. >> well, i mean, look -- marco rubio did too. >> jonathan: that was longer ago. this was while trump was president, the soleimani assassination, which trump thinks is one of his big national security accomplishments and a lot of people agree, she said it was unconstitutional and an act of war. >> okay, fine. that's what she said, but today she's saying something different, and she's -- >> jonathan: is she saying something different about that? >> we're going to find out. one thing i highly -- would suspect is that you wouldn't rise to a rank of an old five lieutenant colonel if our intelligence agencies thought that somehow she was some kind of russian asset which if people are going to leverage those charges, they better be darn sure that they're accurate. >> jonathan: they didn't say

that. she said she was a sympathizer. >> it's all insinuated, okay? it's this cutesy, hyperbolic nonsense coming out of the media and the democrats who refuse to accept the fact that almost a majority or a majority of americans have accepted donald trump and trumpism. i think it's time to give this guy a month of peace and let the process play out. >> you're asking us to be -- >> i don't know about giving him any peace, child, but what -- i will say because you signed up to be the president of the united states, and we are definitely at a precipice in this country, and people were hurting and they believe in him. so no. there should not be any peace over the next four years. he should be working every single day, not hanging out at mar-a-lago on, you know, playing golf. he needs to be working and fighting to deliver for the american people to make sure these prices come down, but also to make sure that we're safe because there were a lot of people that were concerned because of the wars that have been taking place around the world, and he is the guy that said on day one, i will stop this war.

i will stop that war. now i don't know what magic wand he has hanging out in his back pocket that's going to allow him to did that, but as of right now, when we look at literally the level of competence when it comes to picking people that are competent, there are questions to be had about this. at the end of the day, yes. we will respect what the voters decided and the voters did vote him in. we will not sit there -- >> i got to respond to this. >> jonathan: go ahead, chris. >> first off is you can't have it both ways, okay? you can't criticize trump and say, i'll have people who are blindly loyal to him, and when he appoints somebody who has been critical of him and then say, that's bad too. you can't have it both. he's appointed someone like tulsi gabbard and marco rubio who have been -- >> jonathan: it's the most ideologically diverse cabinet we've seen in a long time. >> they have been critical of him. you have to give him credit for that. he's willing to look past that. that's a good thing.

second, democrats need to pick, i think, one. they've got three people i think that are questionable nominees. robert f. kennedy jr., tulsi gabbard, and pete hegseth. you got to pick one because if you go after all three of them, you're going to probably go 0 for 3. >> jonathan: right. >> pick one that you think has the host most problems that are verifiable, and then do that. lastly i say as to what reince said about giving him some peace, i have no problem with that, but you got to give peace to get it, and i think what the president needs to show is to show that he's not going to be on the attack constantly against everybody, that he should bring some democrats in, start to talk to them about the things where they agree because there are places where they agree. i mean, look. he and bernie sanders agree on a lot of things. so i'm all for having some peace because i think we're all tired of all of the other stuff. >> jonathan: amen. >> but you got to give peace to get it. >> let's talk about the hyperbolic nonsense. >> so sad. >> jonathan: we have another pick that's interesting for the reasons you said. this is his pick to be the secretary of labor, lori chavez, outgoing member of congress in the house, republican.

this is what the "wall street journal" had to say about her. trump's labor choice, unions over workers and they write, some republicans think enhancing union power will help republicans win more elections. then why did ms. chavez-deremer lose her re-election? the reality is that pro-labor agenda espoused by union honchos isn't all that popper. it will make labor bosses not workers more powerful. again, i read that because that is a conservative editorial board that is taking -- hotly contesting one of the major cabinet picks. you served on the same committee. >> i will say she's one of the few republicans that actually signed the pro act, and this is somebody the republican -- or the teamsters for sure wanted to make sure they elevated, but she is a republican through and through, you know. i think when it comes down to

it, we did see labor support fall off. we saw where there were various labors that supported joe biden that refused to support the vice president in her candidacy, and so there is something to be said about whatever conversations are taking place, and whether the unions are placing their support, and she may actually be that bridge to actually earn them more support. now the fact that she lost her election, she went up against somebody who has beat her every single time she's run for office. >> jonathan: some democrats will vote for her, probably a lot. >> i agree. >> jonathan: you may see republicans vote against her. what was behind that? >> what's behind the pick is this was the one thing that organized labor asked the trump -- trump to give to them. >> jonathan: the teamster. >> rank and file working class people, that voted for trump. he understands that, and the trump folks in mar-a-lago realize that if the republican party becomes the party of the working people, they're not

going to lose an election, and to the people who are concerned out there, republicans, about this pick, you still have aura who oversees all the regulations, omb, nec, the national economic council, all the committees. it will be very difficult for her to do these things that republicans are afraid of. >> jonathan: you have five seconds. >> president-elect trump has an opportunity to reach out, to do what he didn't do after his first term. this is an opportunity that the american people has given him to make this country great, but do it in a way that don't piss people off. >> this is what i said to you. he's doing the right thing to you by trying to reach out to constituencies. it's smart. >> let's see how long it holds. >> jonathan: that's all the time we have. hope you all have a great thanksgiving. thank you all very much. we will be right back. at thanksgiving. thank you all very much. we will be right back.

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